Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Preview
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is the fast-paced action RPG remaster of a remake of a JRPG classic. The Ys series has been a mainstay of Japanese consoles since 1987. In a lot of ways, this game helped create the archetypal JRPG. And if this preview is anything to go by, it still holds up.
Having said that, the original title, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, came out in 1989. The remake, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, followed in 2005. In other words, this is an old game, and it shows. The graphics aren’t much better than Ys: Memories of Celceta, but the gameplay is polished to a mirror sheen.
If you can’t stand the dated visuals and steep difficulty curve, you may want to pick up Ys X: Nordics instead. The rest of us are in for a delightful retro treat.
This game takes place shortly after the events of Ys X: Nordics, but it is a standalone adventure. You do not have to have played the previous titles to enjoy it.
Fast and Frantic Action
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana begins with our heroes traveling somewhere new. Intrepid adventure-junkie Adol the Red and his best friend Dogi visit the land of Felghana, where Dogi was born. Unfortunately, Felghana is being plagued by monsters, poor harvests, and high taxes. They reconnect with Dogi’s childhood friend Elena, but her brother Chester has gone missing.
When monsters start flooding out of a nearby quarry, Adol steps up to defend Dogi’s hometown. But when Chester returns a knight in the service of the corrupt Count McGuire, things begin to spiral out of control. Something is rotten in the heart of Felghana, and Chester is willing to kill to keep Adol out of it.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is an action JRPG. You control Adol in a 3D old school environment, dodging enemies and raining down attacks. Sometimes literally, as Adol can jump quite high. This adds a 3D element to fights as you can jump over foes or knock them down from ceilings.
Combat is a frenetic mix of button-mashing and trying to outmaneuver your enemies. Boost Mode provides a temporary power-up. And defeating enemies earns you potions, herbs, and other small treats. You can enhance your gear with Ravel Ore, provided you remember to return to town. The result is a simple but strong gameplay loop that kept me entertained even when hopelessly lost and confused.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a JRPG Classic
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a remaster of the most difficult game in the Ys franchise, and it retains that difficulty. Though the added quality of life improvements do make it feel a little fairer. This title is as close as the Ys series gets to Soulslike territory. If you don’t memorize a boss’s attack patterns, they will destroy you, especially on harder difficulties. And a crowd of basic enemies can still chip your health down in seconds.
The dungeon designs are pretty classic JRPG fare, which makes sense, as Ys helped define classic JRPG fare. That said, the focus on verticality and the occasional creative twist like wading through lava adds some spice. I do wish you could unlock the Dash and Warp functions earlier, particularly Dash.
So far, the game has been pretty small in scale. Felghana is a small nation in the boonies with only a handful of towns. Optional sidequests and rewards pad things out a bit, but the gameplay experience is still quite streamlined. Adol can walk anywhere pretty quickly if you’re willing to take on hordes of monsters. Combined with the polished action gameplay, it makes for a surprisingly intimate RPG experience.
This title does feature a prologue novella you can read in-game that explores Adol and Dogi’s decision to visit Felghana. It comes with visuals and a soundtrack, much like a small visual novel. It’s short, but sweet, and I do like the art.
Audio Highs and Lows
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana features a frankly stunning soundtrack. Even better, it features three distinct versions of the soundtrack, each of which is great. And they’re all freshly remastered.
Unfortunately, it re-uses most of the voice acting from the 2005 release. Some of the voices are passable—I’m especially fond of Dogi’s. However, some of the performances are truly awful. The in-game graphics are very, very retro, with downright adorable chibi character models. However, the game does feature new Refined character portraits. They can be swapped out for the classic versions, but the difference is pretty subtle.
Adol, famous for being a silent protagonist, now has voice acting. This isn’t a bad thing. What’s more annoying is the fact that his voiced lines are not subtitled or reflected in the dialog. The game’s writing still assumes he’s silent.
That aside, I ran into a couple of issues while playing. First, I had so much troubling triggering the harpy boss fight that I had to look up a walkthrough. That encounter was not well designed. Second, for some reason the sound effects would occasionally vanish while I was in combat. Fortunately, the soundtrack kept playing.
All in all, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is shaping up to be a fun blast from the past with a great soundtrack. I just wish it looked a little better and the voice acting was consistently good.
***Switch code provided by the publisher***
